Really appreciated the feedback, plan on becoming more involved in the forum here. I will get some pics up soon. 55 / Rad a few of your posts are what prompted me to go with the a frameset and build out, the Tete is nice way to go.
I will check out the other vendors on the build kit options, I am thinking my LBS (of which I have quite a few in metro Boston: WheelWorks, Landry's and InternationalBicycle) would not be as competitive on overall price of the components. Not sure how it would go to walk in there with a frame and a stack of parts and tell them to have at it.
S